The Grape Defender of Grey Castle
by Ecostume
Summary: What do you do with a knight who can't get out of his armor?


The Grape Defender of Grey Castle

Lavinia Brightstar sighed as she turned away from Sir Horatio, and tucked a strand of her long golden blond hair behind her ear. The tall, young, and somewhat awkward knight presently standing in the middle of her study had come to her two days ago, and she had yet to figure out what was wrong with his armor. It simply refused to be removed from his person. It was obviously well made and fit him properly, but it also seemed magically glued to his body. She had tried everything she could think of to counter the spell on the armor—from drenching it in holy water, to drawing runes all over it, to chanting every spell in her books that seemed like it might be even remotely relevant. The only thing she had managed to do was ward the stuff against black magic, which should have negated the original spell. The whole suit was also now a lovely bright purple. The color was not intentional, but was rather a side effect of the unknown spell reacting with some of her own spell work.

Rubbing her tired blue eyes, she turned back to the knight in purple, rune etched armor, and said to him: "Look, I don't know what else to try. I've no idea why your armor refuses to come off, and unless I can figure that out there's nothing I can do. I'm sorry."

"But everyone says you're the best sorceress in three counties. Even my mother says you're the best, and she's very good," Horatio whined while attempting a wounded puppy expression. He failed rather miserably, in part because most of his face was hidden inside the spectacular white crested helmet he wore.

"Your mother?"

"Lady Selina of Grey Castle," he answered, sheepishly.

"Then why don't you ask _her _to get you out of this pickle? I'd think she'd have far more experience with enchanted armor than I have."

"Because she's the one who got me into this trouble to begin with."

Lavinia raised an eyebrow.

He continued, "She said she was trying to keep me safe. She didn't quite get the spell right, it was supposed to protect me from harm _all the time_. That's why I'm here. I didn't want to hurt her feelings."

"Why didn't you tell me this to begin with? I was trying to counter a malicious spell, not a friendly one gone wrong."

"It's embarrassing. She's always fussing over me," Horatio murmured quietly, looking down at his feet.

Lavinia stared at him for a minute as if she couldn't believe what she had just heard, then she rolled her eyes and muttered "men!" as she turned and stomped out of the room. She returned a few minutes later carrying a chalice of clear liquid and had a large quilt over her arm. The quilt was made of bright blue and lime green fabric and had strange symbols embroidered all over it in silver and gold. She paused for a moment as if considering weather or not the purple clad knight in front of her was worth her trouble, then shrugged her shoulders and with an exasperated sigh hauled him into her guest bedroom.

"Lay down and go to sleep. When you wake up tomorrow morning, drink this first. Then you will be able to get out of that armor." She set the chalice on the nightstand, threw the quilt over him, and retreated back to her study, muttering. "If I had a coin for every well intentioned mother's magical mess I've had to clean up, I could retire to a nice, quiet cottage in the woods where no one could find me. I could bake gingerbread and tend my garden, and not have to deal with these morons. But noooo, I'm morally obligated to help the unfortunate. Arragh!"

She was sure that Sir Horatio Grey Castle would run off the next morning without even so much as a "thank you" for her efforts. She'd spent the better part of two days trying to lift or negate a _black_ magic curse because that numbskull was too embarrassed to tell her that she was dealing with a white magic mix-up. For that she decided to leave his armor purple—give him something to really be embarrassed about. The spell she was working right now would leave her own very distinct signature on the armor, as well as taking care of the compulsion to keep it on his body at all times. She knew that no one within days of here would take any of her spell work off, so he would have to explain everything to his mother when he got home. She decided to write a letter to Lady Selina, explaining exactly what had happened. She just wished she could be there to see how it played out.

Author's Note:

This is the first story I wrote with the character of Lavinia Brightstar. To find out more about her check out my story "The Price of Strawberries"


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